stuggling climbing

bragawd

Hi all...
just a quick question.
I normally mountain bike but have recently bought a road bike BUT i seem to struggle on the really steep climbs.
my bike has a 28 tooth cassette how much difference would a 32 tooth version make.

antfly

It would make quite a big difference but you would probably need a new rear mech and definately a longer chain. I did it when I started.

danlikesbikes

You need something like this - http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_ratios

If your question is "I struggle with my climbing, what can I do?" then the simplest answer is often the right one. Find a hill that you struggle with and plan a route to include the climb and a short circuit, or if you can't plan a route just use the hill up & down. Do a nice warm up ride to the hill ride up and onto your recovery route (or the down hill) and repeat the first time try for 3 ascents then ride home as a warm down, then next time increase to 4 and 5. By the time you can ride the same route 5 times and it's getting easier start to work on speed i.e. time your climb and using bigger gears to develop low cadence torque power good for short burt power.

Yossie

1. Rule 5.

2. Alternate between sitting down and standing up - standing up is faster but takes more energy, sitting down gets fast when you get momentum going and is less tiring

3. Rule 5

4. As you ridd up the hill don't look up it - look under your arm: it fools your mind into believeing that the road is flat and you don't get wimped out by the hill (seriously - it works)

5. Rule 5

6. Break the hill down into sections - pick a point (eg a tree) say, 100 yards up the hill and aim for that - then look for another easily obtainable target. It breaks the hill down and you don't get wimped out by it.

7. Rule 5

8. Do more hills: the more you do the better you get.

No need for 38 teeth or whatever cassettes - 39/23 gets me everywhere, only one bloek I know needs anything larger and he uses a 39/25.

But thats just me.....

antfly

Maybe you live in the flatlands..the pros use more teeth in the hills.

Yossie

Maybe I'm just better than you.

antfly

Maybe you are full of crap.

styxd

antfly wrote:

Maybe you live in the flatlands..the pros use more teeth in the hills.

Are you a pro?

antfly

Of course I am, but you don't have to be a pro to know these things.

Yossie

antfly wrote:

Maybe you are full of crap.

Nah - I'm just better than you. After thinking about it I've decided to take the maybe out as its most probably a definite.


And do you really know these things? Are you sure? Really sure? Are you like a team pro mechanic pro? Like a pro mechanic team pro mechanic man? Or a DS (thats like the bloke or one of the blokes in charge of the pro team pro bicyclerists just in case you didn't know) for a pro team? Like a pro DS man pro team DS? Pray tell, this way you can enlighten us all with your vast and much superior knowledge of bicyclingerists and their gearing and what we should all be using.


Now don't get cross. It isn't nice to get cross and use naughty words like that one you used above. So please don't get cross. Naughty words aren't nice.

Yossie

styxd wrote:

antfly wrote:

Maybe you live in the flatlands..the pros use more teeth in the hills.

Are you a pro?

antfly wrote:

Of course I am, but you don't have to be a pro to know these things.

Who do you ride for by the way - can we have some piccies, autographs and free/discounted kit?

Are you doing the Giro du France this year or Tour D'Italia? Can we all come along and support you?

Do you have enough time between pro racing to set upa Bikeradarists only blog of your pro racing season - be well cool to see your words of advice written directly to us.

Ppppppppppppllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase.

grazza_e

Back to the OP question, if you are at the point where you can't maintain a reasonable cadence, I guess you could go bigger, but there is a limit. Are you using Compact 50/34 on the front or a standard double?

I've used a 28 on a compact (50/34) when I was tripping about the alps a year or two back. At the time I couldn't go further than that without major mech changes. For me switching from a 25 to 28 helped quite a bit, parituclarly because I was doing multiple days of 15km + climbs and was worried about my knees if I was mashing too much. So theoretically it should help you, but with the exception of SRAM, not sure who markets that sort of cassette / mech combination that will work (or at least is designed / guaranteed to work), but i may be wrong.

I could tell you to get fitter, climb more etc. but i'm sure you know that, I presume you just want to be able to climb comfortably at your current fitness level. I'm not a pro, or supremely fit...

rolf_f

Yossie wrote:

1. Rule 5.

2. Alternate between sitting down and standing up - standing up is faster but takes more energy, sitting down gets fast when you get momentum going and is less tiring

3. Rule 5

4. As you ridd up the hill don't look up it - look under your arm: it fools your mind into believeing that the road is flat and you don't get wimped out by the hill (seriously - it works)

5. Rule 5

6. Break the hill down into sections - pick a point (eg a tree) say, 100 yards up the hill and aim for that - then look for another easily obtainable target. It breaks the hill down and you don't get wimped out by it.

7. Rule 5

8. Do more hills: the more you do the better you get.

No need for 38 teeth or whatever cassettes - 39/23 gets me everywhere, only one bloek I know needs anything larger and he uses a 39/25.

But thats just me.....

This is all good stuff apart from the last bit about only needing 39/23 which is balderdash and anyone who really only knows people with such gearing either has a very small circle of cycling friends or is fibbing . Mind you, I'm must be really terrible as I know people who use triples!! Still, people do get up the likes of Hardknott on 39/23 but I'm a pretty good climber and was defeated with 34/29 so make what you will of that. Oh, and all references to 'the rules' are irredemably tragic but Yossie probably knows this

But, as I said, the other points are good. I used to find counting 100 pedal revolutions worked well too - it's far enough to get you a fair way up a lot of hills - far enough that when you look up again the horror of what is still to come is much reduced!

antfly

@ Yossie I think you are the one that is geting cross, there is smoke coming out of your ears. Silly person.

styxd

The fact that pro's use a certain selection of gears doesnt really hold any value. Pro's are racing up and down mountains over hundreds of Kilometers. They also use double chainsets. They are also far fitter than us. Which is what the OP needs to work on - fitness.

antfly

Nearly everyone uses a double chainset these days so what's your point ?
There is no shame in using a bigger cassette for a while when you are a beginner, you don't become a climber overnight.

Yossie

antfly wrote:

@ Yossie I think you are the one that is geting cross, there is smoke coming out of your ears. Silly person.

Don't be angry sweet pie. We still love you.

styxd

antfly wrote:

Nearly everyone uses a double chainset these days so what's your point ?
There is no shame in using a bigger cassette for a while when you are a beginner, you don't become a climber overnight.

Unless you're racing, most people seem to use compacts.

father_jack

older gent asked similar question, but he's already fitted a large cassette on the back, and using smaller chainring could cause problems. Alternatives is to upgrade to a triple, but that costs a lot (new bottom bracket, chainset, possibly shifters, and maybe also new front derailler?)

Could pickup a second bike, perhaps a MTB or a MTB based hybrid and use that until you get fitter. Those have lower gears, and will do thinks the road bike cannot.

Bozman

styxd wrote:

antfly wrote:

Nearly everyone uses a double chainset these days so what's your point ?
There is no shame in using a bigger cassette for a while when you are a beginner, you don't become a climber overnight.

Unless you're racing, most people seem to use compacts.

A compact is a double! A standard is a double too and a triple is used on mountain bikes.

styxd

Bozman wrote:

styxd wrote:

antfly wrote:

Nearly everyone uses a double chainset these days so what's your point ?
There is no shame in using a bigger cassette for a while when you are a beginner, you don't become a climber overnight.

Unless you're racing, most people seem to use compacts.

A compact is a double! A standard is a double too and a triple is used on mountain bikes.

No way?

Tail end Charlie

The hundred presses on the pedals is good, breaks the hill down into parts.
On really steep ones I try to have my inhaling and exhaling coinciding with each pedal press.
Don't look too far ahead.
Keep doing them, they do get easier.
Gearing wise, I'm not ashamed to admit I use a triple.